With its latest move, SWIFT global payments network seems to be challenging Ripple and all similar emerging cross-border startups

SWIFT is testing a new payments system

This new system is created in order to counter Ripple and similar companies who are competing in the sector of cross-border payments with low fees, high speed, and zero errors.

The Financial Times publication revealed that SWIFT is testing a new system that is not based on the blockchain, but instead, “it will be using an application programming interface (API) that allows financial institutions to access the data of one another in order to check bank account numbers before payments are being made,” as reported by Oracle Times.

The main goal of the new system is to eliminate delays which usually occur with cross-border payments and also kill all potential errors.

Ripple’s CEO used to make fun of SWIFT and say that it hasn’t been evolving for quite a while. Well, by the look of things it may seem that SWIFT wasn’t to prove everyone wrong with its latest developments.

SWIFT has not only been pressure by Ripple’s presence in the field but by other fintechs as well. These include Revolut and TransferWire which have also been doing their best to offer better, faster and cheaper cross-border payments.

JPMorgan is involved in the testing process

There are 15 banks which are involved in SWIFT’s program at the moment, and JPMorgan is one of them.

The Swiss CMO Luc Meurant stated that the new system would definitely be able to process cross-border payments much faster.

“We know that there are still some payments which are badly formatted and missing some information,” he said.

He continued and explained that “Instead of correcting that later in the chain and delaying payment, we are trying to anticipate as many of those issues as possible (with pre-validation) so payments can be processed faster.”